exfoliating acids
Your Skin Doesn't Know Something Is Viral
A small new study linked social-media-inspired skincare routines with irritation, acne and other inflammatory skin problems. The study has limitations. The bigger question it raises is harder to ignore. If you are paring a routine back, koppā's GHK-Cu 2% High Potency Serum is one water-light, fragrance-free step that carries 2% GHK-Cu and six additional peptides: 3 to 4 drops on clean skin, morning and night.
By Madelaine, koppā co-founder
My mum and I grew up with completely different relationships to skincare.
She had magazines, beauty counters, whatever happened to be in the bathroom, and considerably fewer people telling her before breakfast that she urgently needed a new toner.
I have an algorithm.
I can open TikTok or Instagram and, within ten minutes, be introduced to a cleansing balm, an exfoliating toner, a milky toner, an essence, three serums, a retinal, a peptide cream, an overnight mask and something I apparently need specifically for the pores beside my nose.
Occasionally I show one of these discoveries to Mum.
Occasionally she looks interested.
More often she looks at me as though I have joined a cult.
She may have a point.
What did the 2026 social-media skincare study find?
I came across an article in Allure this week about a small study presented at the 2026 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.
Allure called TikTok a “hotbed of beauty recommendations.”
That feels fairly accurate. Allure
The study followed 94 dermatology patients over 12 months. All of them had developed a new skin problem, or worsening of an existing one, after using a makeup or skincare product promoted on social media.
Among those patients, 42% developed irritant contact dermatitis. Nearly 30% developed acne or experienced worsening acne. Twelve percent had rosacea or rosacea-like flares, more than 10% developed post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and 7% experienced superficial chemical burns. Allure
Chemical exfoliants containing AHAs or BHAs were associated with adverse reactions in about 35% of the patients. Retinoid products were linked with inflammation in 27%, high-concentration vitamin C in 14%, and niacinamide-containing products in 11%. Allure
Perhaps the most interesting number was this:
63% were using more than three active ingredients in their skincare routines.
Nearly half said their routines had been created entirely from social-media inspiration. Allure
Before we turn that into a headline saying TikTok is destroying everyone's face, there is an important limitation.
This was a small observational study of people who were already in dermatology clinics because something had gone wrong. It does not tell us how often social-media-inspired skincare causes problems among skincare users generally.
It certainly does not mean 42% of people following TikTok routines will develop dermatitis.
But it does raise a very reasonable question.
When did taking care of our skin become this complicated?
Are active ingredients the problem?
Retinoids are not bad.
Acids are not bad.
Vitamin C is not bad.
Niacinamide is not bad.
Many active skincare ingredients have good evidence behind them when they are used appropriately.
The problem is that skincare is increasingly being consumed as content.
And content needs something new.
The algorithm cannot tell you every morning:
Keep using the same three things and come back in six months.
That would be terrible content.
Instead there is another ingredient. Another launch. Another combination. Another person with beautiful skin explaining the eleven products responsible for it.
Before long, we are no longer choosing products because our skin actually needs them. We are assembling routines because every individual product seems to make sense on its own.
That distinction matters.
Your skin does not experience each product in isolation.
It experiences the whole routine.
Can too many products irritate skin?
There is a strange thing that happens when you become interested in skincare.
You learn enough to recognize ingredients, but not necessarily enough to understand how everything fits together.
So perhaps you hear that retinoids can improve acne and signs of photoaging.
Great.
Then you hear that glycolic acid exfoliates.
Also useful.
Vitamin C? Antioxidant.
Niacinamide? Barrier support.
Salicylic acid? Pores.
Peptides? Interesting.
Suddenly six perfectly legitimate ingredients are sitting on your bathroom counter.
That doesn't automatically make them a good routine.
A 2026 survey of 168 dermatologists and dermatology residents found that 91.6% were concerned about the increasing popularity of multi-step skincare routines, while 88.1% said they regularly encountered skincare-related skin problems. The problems most commonly reported included irritant eczema, perioral dermatitis, allergic contact dermatitis and acne exogenica. Retinoids, exfoliating acids and fragrances were among the ingredients frequently associated with complaints. Dove Press
Only 12.5% of those surveyed said they actively recommended multi-step routines. Dove Press
That does not prove that a four-step routine is safe and a ten-step routine is dangerous.
There is no magic number.
It does suggest something more useful:
Complexity itself is not a benefit.
Every additional product needs a reason to be there.
Is stinging a sign that a product is working?
This is another idea that skincare culture has made strangely persistent.
The burn.
The sting.
The peel.
The redness.
Sometimes we interpret a strong sensation as proof that an active product must really be doing something.
But irritation is not a badge of efficacy.
The stratum corneum, the outermost part of the skin, is part of a barrier that helps limit water loss and protect the tissue beneath it from the outside environment.
When that barrier is repeatedly irritated or disrupted, skin may become dry, tight, flaky, red or unexpectedly sensitive to products it previously tolerated.
And the frustrating part is that it isn't always obvious which product caused it.
If you started an exfoliating toner, retinal, vitamin C serum and two new moisturizers in the same week, your bathroom has effectively become a crime scene with five suspects.
This is why introducing products individually is considerably less exciting but considerably more useful.
If your skin changes, you have some chance of knowing why.
Are younger people using more skincare?
This is the part I find harder to dismiss as simply another beauty trend.
A 2025 study published in Pediatrics analyzed 100 skincare videos from creators aged 18 or younger that were recommended to accounts posing as 13-year-old users.
The average routine contained six products.
Among the 25 most-viewed videos, researchers found an average of 11 potentially irritating active ingredients, with some routines containing as many as 21. Only around a quarter of the routines included sunscreen. Allure
Some of the creators appearing in the videos were children.
That raises a different question.
When very young people become skincare consumers, what exactly are we asking them to fix?
Young skin does not need a strategy against ageing.
Yet skincare has become incredibly collectible.
The packaging is beautiful.
Shelves look good on camera.
Routines become content.
Collections become part of identity.
And importantly, this is not something we can simply blame on children or teenagers.
They are responding to an environment adults and brands built around them.
Does social media make people buy more skincare?
Another study published in 2026 looked at personal-care-product use among 143 high-school students in New Jersey.
Researchers found a consistent association between greater social-media engagement and the number of personal-care products students used.
Students who followed influencers with product lines used more products. Students who watched hair and beauty tutorials used more products. Forty-one percent reported buying personal-care products after seeing them used on social media. Nature[1]
It was a pilot study, and an association does not prove that social media caused the behavior.
But I recognize the pattern because I live inside it too.
I love skincare.
I like knowing what ingredients do.
I like trying things.
And I know exactly what it feels like to see the same product fifteen times in a week and start wondering whether everyone else knows something you don't.
There is a very short path from:
That looks interesting.
to:
Maybe I should try that.
to:
Why don't I already own that?
Social media did not invent beauty marketing.
It just made it continuous.
Is social media bad for your skin?
It would be very easy to turn this into an article about how TikTok is terrible.
I don't think that would be fair.
Social media has made people more curious about skincare science.
More people know what SPF is. More people understand that acne is a skin condition, not a hygiene failure. More people have heard of retinoids, the skin barrier, hyperpigmentation and ingredients that might once have remained buried in dermatology offices or cosmetic chemistry textbooks.
The specialists in that same 2026 survey recognized this too. Nearly 80% saw potential benefits in the rise of skincare interest, particularly increased awareness of skin health and sun protection. Dove Press
There are also excellent skin specialists, researchers and cosmetic chemists making genuinely useful content online.
The problem isn't access to information.
It is the absence of an editor.
Everything arrives with the same visual urgency.
An ingredient with decades of research can occupy exactly the same amount of screen space as something launched last Thursday.
A skin specialist can be followed immediately by somebody whose main qualification is excellent lighting.
You still have to decide what deserves to stay.
What does a simple skincare routine look like?
This may be an odd thing for the co-founder of a skincare company to say.
But I don't think skincare should require this much mental administration.
You shouldn't need a spreadsheet to remember which acids you used on which night.
You shouldn't have to recover from your skincare routine before starting your skincare routine again.
And you probably don't need to replace a product that is working simply because the internet has moved on.
A sensible routine can be very simple.
Cleanse appropriately.
Use a treatment when there is actually something you are trying to treat.
Moisturize.
Wear sunscreen.
Then give it time.
That last part is perhaps the least fashionable.
We have become accustomed to measuring skincare in first impressions.
How does it feel immediately?
How does it photograph?
Did it make me look different overnight?
Skin biology moves more slowly than a content feed.
Consistency isn't exciting, but it has one enormous advantage over trend chasing:
you eventually find out whether something actually works for you.
Where koppā fits in your routine
This thinking is also part of why koppā ended up with three products rather than a shelf full of them.
We wanted each formula to have a clear job and to be something you could use consistently rather than constantly replace.
We built around GHK-Cu because copper tripeptide has a long research history, not because it appeared in my feed one morning.
The serum is the clearest example: 2% GHK-Cu, stated on the label, with six additional peptides, in a water-light, fragrance-free formula that absorbs quickly. One step, 3 to 4 drops, morning and night.
To start, add it on its own: 3 to 4 drops on clean skin, face and neck, morning and night, before your moisturizer and, in the morning, your sunscreen.
Does viral mean it doesn't work?
The point is choosing deliberately.
We recently looked at PDRN, one of the fastest-growing ingredients in skincare, for exactly this reason.
Something becoming viral doesn't mean it doesn't work.
It also doesn't mean the evidence behind a topical cosmetic suddenly becomes stronger because millions of people are talking about it.
PDRN in Skincare: Does Salmon DNA Really Work on Your Face?
The same principle came up when we looked at whether drinking more water actually hydrates your skin.
Again, the answer was much less dramatic than the internet version.
Does Drinking Water Help Your Skin? What Studies Found
I am beginning to think “less dramatic than the internet version” may be a useful skincare philosophy generally.
When does a more complex routine make sense?
None of this means everyone should throw away their serums.
Some people have acne, rosacea, pigmentation, eczema or other skin conditions that genuinely require carefully structured treatment.
The distinction is purpose.
There is a difference between:
I use this because it treats something my skin needs.
and:
I use this because somebody else's skin looked incredible while they were holding the bottle.
One is a routine.
The other can very quickly become a collection.
So perhaps the next time something new appears repeatedly in your feed, the question isn't:
Should I try it?
It is:
What am I actually trying to change?
If you don't know, your skin may not need another step.
It may just need you to stop giving it new ones.
Madelaine
koppā co-founder
Frequently asked questions
Can too many skincare products irritate your skin?
Yes, they can. In a small 2026 study of 94 dermatology patients whose skin reacted to products promoted on social media, 42% had irritant contact dermatitis and 63% were using more than three active ingredients.
How many skincare products should you use?
There is no magic number: every product needs a reason to be there. A sensible routine can be as simple as cleansing, one targeted product for something you want to change, a moisturizer and sunscreen.
Is stinging or peeling a sign that a product is working?
No, irritation is not a badge of efficacy. When the skin barrier is irritated again and again, skin can become dry, tight, flaky, red or sensitive to products it used to tolerate.
What is in koppā's GHK-Cu 2% High Potency Serum?
It contains 2% GHK-Cu (copper tripeptide-1), stated on the label, with six additional peptides, Hydrolyzed Collagen and Collagen, in a water-light, fragrance-free 45 ml bottle for $75. Use 3 to 4 drops on clean skin, face and neck, morning and night.
The short version
Too many products can irritate skin: in a small 2026 study of 94 dermatology patients reacting to social-media skincare, 63% were using more than three active ingredients. Complexity itself is not a benefit, and every product in a routine needs a reason to be there. Add new products one at a time so you can tell what your skin is responding to. If you want one peptide step with a clear job, start with 3 to 4 drops of koppā's GHK-Cu 2% High Potency Serum on clean skin, morning and night.
Sources and further reading
Allure, October 7, 2026
A New Study Links TikTok Beauty Routines to These Inflammatory Skin Conditions
Read the Allure article
Poelhekken M, van der Bent SAS. 2026.
Dermatologists’ Perspectives on Skincare Routine Trends. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology. Survey of 168 dermatologists and dermatology residents examining multi-step routines, complications and social-media influence. Dove Press
Read the peer-reviewed paper
Barrett ES, Getz K, Whitted J, et al. 2026.
Adolescent personal care product use and social media engagement: a pilot study in NJ high school students. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. Nature[1]
Read the study
Pediatric Skin Care Regimens on TikTok. 2025.
Published in Pediatrics. The study analyzed skincare routines recommended to teen-profile accounts and examined routine complexity, sunscreen use and potentially irritating ingredients. The findings are also discussed in the Allure article above. Allure
Sources and further reading
- Nature nature.com
